The BJP government led by Narendra Modi today asked DEITY Secretary Ram Sewak Sharma to handle the Department of Telecom (DoT) as additional charge for a period of three months or until any new order is passed.
The current DoT secretary MF Farooqui retired on June 30. The Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer of 1978 batch, Farooqui had 15 month tenure at the helm of the DoT, PTI reported.
Sharma, who joined as secretary of DEITY on May 1, held the position of director general and Mission Director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) between August 2009 and March 2013. He played instrumental role in developing Aadhar Card concept with former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani.
Under Farooqui’s tenure, key regulations of new licensing regime of Unified Licenses and change in spectrum usage charges were notified.
Various key guidelines like spectrum sharing and trading, full mobile number portability, Wi-Fi services for rural India, new penalty norms for telecom operators also received in-principal approval from higher authorities during the tenure of Farooqui.
